Revolt: New Haven

IV. The Assembly

An hour into the afternoon, the entire resident population made their way into the theater in the north center of campus. Inside, teachers ushered them to the seats. Lena met up with Jace and the others in the same row near the front, right in front of the stage.
"Hey," Jace said as she sat next to him in the aisle seat.
"Hey," Lena smiled at him.
"How was your nap?" Jace asked.
"Good," Lena nodded, "Wished it was longer, though."
"I understand," Jace smiled.
"Hey," Aria whispered over to them, "They're dimming the lights. That means this is about to start."
Lena rolled her eyes while Jace chuckled at her.

Sure enough, the house lights were dimmed down and the stage lights went up, revealing a podium situated in front of a wall of red stage curtains.
Kendra Charmaine then stepped out, wearing the notable cloak of New Haven headmistress. She approached the podium, and cleared her throat.

"Welcome, students and faculty, to winter term here at New Haven," she said in a warm tone, "I am Kendra Charmaine, Gifted History instructor here at New Haven. I am humbled to have been chosen by the honorable Arielle Danford to be acting headmistress in her absence. As some of you may have been aware, she had to take a leave of absence starting around the beginning of break to attend to a family emergency."
Murmurs came from the crowd.
"As such, I will aim to do my very best during my time as headmistress," she smiled, "Now, I have had an email sent out to your New Haven email accounts. It explained that there will be some temporary rule changes to ease my time as headmistress, as well as encourage you on your studies. For starters, traveling Elfen Island unsupervised is now forbidden. Same goes for dueling and training. You must now send in a request form to traverse, train, or duel, and it must be okay'd by me. It would help me to know where exactly all of you are. It concerns me that some of your G.P.A.s are less than average, and I could only deduce that the blame is on the excessive freedom you all have over the island. New Haven does pride itself on being a place where Gifted are completely free to use their Gifts, but academics are important for your future. I understand these changes might make some of you upset, but I ask you to understand that they are but temporary. You can find the changed rules posted on the bulletin boards around campus, as well as online."

"I can't believe this," Dai uttered, "It's ridiculous."
"You're telling me," Kai replied, "Free reign to use our Gifts and go wherever is what made New Haven special."
"Ugh," Raina grumbled, "This is annoying."

"Now," Kendra continued, "Allow me to do one last thing before ending today's assembly."
Her four children then came out onto the stage, Max being the last and looking down.
"Hey," Raina whispered to Dai next to her, "It's your little friend."
Dai and Lena both looked up at him with uncertain expressions.

"These are my children," Kendra explained, "They are model students, and will also act as my enforcers. If any of these changed guidelines is broken in their presence, they will alert me, and consequences will follow. While I am here for you all, I will not tolerate insubordination. Believe me when I say these rule changes benefit both you and I."
Annoyed murmurs emitted from the audience now, some even from the teachers standing by the doors.

"Thank you for your time today," Kendra said, "I look forward to seeing you all attending class tomorrow morning."
She then headed off backstage, followed by her kids, leaving behind a disgruntled population of students.

🥀

As the audience dispersed out of the theater and into the courtyard, immense grumbling could be heard.
"I can't BELIEVE her!" Aria exclaimed, "She's basically imprisoning us here!"
"Don't be dramatic," Dai said, "Though, it is annoying we now have to send in a request form that can possibly get denied."
"It's stupid," Lena huffed, "We can't even go for a walk on the beach?"

The group then noticed New Haven's security force stationing themselves by the pier up ahead.
"...I guess not," Jace sighed.
"She's going crazy with these changes," Kai grumbled, "I mean, she's basically abusing power here."
"Clearly, Ms. Danford okay'd it," Luke shrugged, "I think."
"I doubt she okay'd the exploitation of the security!" Dai countered, before groaning and pinching his nose.
"It's dumb, for sure," Raina agreed, "But like, there's not much we can do about it without getting expelled or something."
No one replied as they made their way back to the dorms.
Lena thought about Max being up on that stage, and slowed her pace to match Dai.

"Hey," she whispered, "Did you see how Max looked up there?"
"Yeah," he whispered back, "He looked miserable."
"We should find him," Lena said, "Ask him what's up."
Dai paused, considering.
"We could just wait until tomorrow," he said, "We have homeroom with him, after all."
"Oh," Lena realized, "True. Let's ask him then."
"Agreed," Dai nodded.

As the conversation finished, Dai felt his phone buzz again. Pulling it out, his face darkened once again for Alana sent him another message.
Luke noticed his change in expression, remembering earlier.

"Hey," he said to Dai, "Are you okay?"
"Fine," Dai replied abruptly.
"Bu-" Luke started.
Dai then stopped abruptly, clearly irritated.
This caught the others' attention.
"Everything okay back there?" Kai asked.
Dai's face went red, a mixture of embarrassment and anger crossing his face.
He then looked to Lena, who looked at him confused but concerned.

"Let's go look for Max," he said, "Now."
"But-" Lena started before Dai grabbed her wrist and practically stomped off, dragging the Russian girl behind him.
The others just watched them go, appalled.
"Sheesh," Raina crossed her arms, "What's his problem all of a sudden?"
"I'm not sure..." Luke replied worriedly.
Jace just watched as the tall ice Gifted went towards the education buildings with Lena. He couldn't help but feel a funny feeling in his stomach. His brow furrowed as he realized what it was.

Jealousy.